It is with tremendous sadness that we share with you the loss of our friend, Lynn Cook in January.  Skinny Lynn was always a joy to play with and to be around - his sense of humor, his musicianship, his kindness. Our hearts are heavy as we grapple with this news. Please enjoy the sounds and videos of him playing trombone with us! Godspeed, friend.

Hello Abbey-ites! 

We are hoping to get on a regular schedule of sending out newsletters – not so often that we bug you, but often enough so you know we’re still here. 

We want to alert you of some upcoming dates. Of course, you can always check out the website to see what’s happening. 

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES 

          Saturday, 6/22/19 6:00           Jazz on the Patio 

                              Bryant Corner Café 

                              3118 NE 65th St 

                              Seattle, WA 98115 

This is a return to this great venue that has been so very good to us. We love the intimate atmosphere and the people. Great place to sit and listen and have some food and drink. Please join us for this one time date to encourage them to have more events like this. 

          Sunday, 7/28/19 7:00              The Art of Jazz at Vermillion 

                              Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar 

                              1508 11th Ave 

                              Seattle, WA 98122 

This will be a first time at this venue – we will feature a guest, Max Baldonado, on, among other instruments, an alto flute. 

          Saturday, 8/17/19 1:30           Jazz Abbey at the Fair 

                              Southwest Washington Fair 

                              2555 N National Ave 

                              Chehalis, WA 98532 

This is a whopping big event for us. We’ll be ramping up and hope to have trombone and vibes player join us to help us fill out this large venue. 

RECENT PERFORMANCES 

On May 26th, we had a great time playing at Northwest Folklife. We had a 30 minute set, so it was a fast scramble to get set up and a challenge to fit in the music we wanted to showcase. If you are interested in hearing (or seeing) any of it, you can find some links to audio/video/pics on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JazzAbbey/. 

Prior to that, we had a couple of gigs at the Seamonster in the Wallingford district earlier in the year. The sets were a bit more energetic and less traditional, and included a couple guests on trombone and keyboards. Keep your eyes open for a future return gig at that venue, perhaps this fall.

It is January 2019 as we complete this post. We just finished our first gig at the Seamonster where we presented a 90 minute set of material that is far from the standards we have been playing the past few years. We invited Lynn Cook to join us on trombone and Andre Mueller to join us on keys for this gig. We are excited by what we heard and inspired by what is possible.

We appreciated everyone who came out to support us. It was a great show. Over next few months, we will continue to grow our new sound, while respecting our roots.

We have a standards show at Couth Buzzard on 1 March and we return to the Seamonster for our new sound on 21 March. 

Your support and the connection we feel with you pushes us to become.

We wish us all the best. 

Thanks for checking out our new website.

Like many other bands, we had been depending on Facebook for our connection to you for far too long. But as band members (and you, our supporters) engaged less and less with that platform, we knew that it was time to find a way to communicate that avoided first wading through political memes and targeted ads. 

Everyone has less time than ever, but more choices. 

Loewen learned about this band hosting site (Bandzoogle) at a workshop on the business of music led by Dmitri Matheny. Likewise, DG has been reading a book on this same topic by Ari Herstand to learn some new ways of connecting you to our music. It is clear that the rules of music marketing have changed, and we want to be smart. 

Through this platform, we have the ability to share audio clips directly with you without needing to direct you to another site. We can send announcements directly to email rather than relying on how we are prioritized in a "news feed". And there are a number of other built-in features that we will explore later this summer. 

OK, that's enough for a first test post. We have been recording some new charts and we need to start mixing those down so you can hear what we've been up to. 

Don't forget to signup for our mailing list while you are visiting. 

Looking forward to playing for you soon.

Jazz Abbey